Cans and glass are infinitely recyclable. Recycling aluminum saves 96% of the energy of producing new.
Paper is semi recyclable, but it degrades, so it can only go through the process a certain number of times.
Plastic is marginally recyclable. Only about 10% of plastic that goes into a recycling bin gets recycled. It was a hoax by petro-chem to make plastic seem more sustainable than it is.
Recycling aluminum saves 96% of the energy of producing new.
I believe that Iceland is home to some incredible geothermal networks, and thus they can produce aluminum at a volume and rate that outstrips any other nation by a mile.
That said, I’m curious how the electricity would be transferred from Iceland’s geothermal plants with maximum fidelity. Follow-up, if that number changes, so should the “96%”, correct? I’m no engineer, barely an oneironaut, so I’m just throwing it out there, in case anyone can break that down? 🤓
Aluminium recycling is the process in which secondary commercial aluminium is created from scrap or other forms of end-of-life or otherwise unusable aluminium.[1] It involves re-melting the metal, which is cheaper and more energy-efficient than the production of virgin aluminium by electrolysis of alumina (Al2O3) refined from raw bauxite by use of the Bayer and Hall–Héroult processes.
Recycling scrap aluminium requires only 5% of the energy used to make new aluminium from the raw ore.[2]
Cans and glass are infinitely recyclable. Recycling aluminum saves 96% of the energy of producing new.
Paper is semi recyclable, but it degrades, so it can only go through the process a certain number of times.
Plastic is marginally recyclable. Only about 10% of plastic that goes into a recycling bin gets recycled. It was a hoax by petro-chem to make plastic seem more sustainable than it is.
That 10% is going to be country specific, much higher plastic recycle rates are possible and are already happening in some countries.
In the eu about 40% of plastic packaging waste gets recycled, but with significant differences per country: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/topics/en/article/20181212STO21610/plastic-waste-and-recycling-in-the-eu-facts-and-figures
Slovakia and Belgium are/were the eu’s best performers in 2022. When looking for more general figures for Belgium, instead of only packaging, I found that 38.6% of plastic waste was recycled and 59.8% was used for energy generation, while the rest ended up in a landfill. https://plasticseurope.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/CircularEconomy_nationalinfographics_2024.pdf
I believe that Iceland is home to some incredible geothermal networks, and thus they can produce aluminum at a volume and rate that outstrips any other nation by a mile.
That said, I’m curious how the electricity would be transferred from Iceland’s geothermal plants with maximum fidelity. Follow-up, if that number changes, so should the “96%”, correct? I’m no engineer, barely an oneironaut, so I’m just throwing it out there, in case anyone can break that down? 🤓
Based on this Ontario and Quebec should be pretty good at recycling aluminium as well.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aluminium_recycling
Aluminium recycling is the process in which secondary commercial aluminium is created from scrap or other forms of end-of-life or otherwise unusable aluminium.[1] It involves re-melting the metal, which is cheaper and more energy-efficient than the production of virgin aluminium by electrolysis of alumina (Al2O3) refined from raw bauxite by use of the Bayer and Hall–Héroult processes.
Recycling scrap aluminium requires only 5% of the energy used to make new aluminium from the raw ore.[2]
Care to take a swing at the other points I brought up? Thanks for the silent clarification via wiki, though. That’s a step.
I’m not really sure what you’re asking or getting at. Could you be more explicit?
oh wow thats much better than I thought!